Federer confident team events can survive

GENEVA - Team events are making quite a resurgence on the men's tennis circuit, with three different competitions scheduled over the next four months.

What's still unclear, however, is whether they can all co-exist in the long term.

"Something's got to shake out," John McEnroe acknowledged on Thursday, ahead of captaining a six-man world team in the annual Laver Cup tournament.

The three-day Laver Cup, co-owned by and starring Roger Federer, started in 2017 while the International Tennis Federation sought a new format for the historic but ailing Davis Cup. It pits a team of European stars against a selection of players from the rest of the world.

The revamped Davis Cup returns in November with 18 nations - though not Federer's Switzerland - playing over seven days in a single city, Madrid, to end the season.

Another team event launches the 2020 campaign - the inaugural 24-nation ATP Cup, from Jan 3-12 in Australia. Then there's the Tokyo Olympics, another addition to an already packed schedule.

Federer has committed to playing at the ATP Cup but hasn't made up his mind on the Olympics. But he's confident there's room on the calendar for all three team events.

"Absolutely," Federer said on Thursday at the Europe squad's Laver Cup media conference.

"There were places in the past for four different Davis Cup matches," Federer said, recalling the February-April-September-November fixtures he and Stan Wawrinka played to lift the 2014 trophy. "Now it's less than that for the three separate team tournaments."

Since Switzerland won its only Davis Cup title, Federer has played just a single match to gain eligibility for the 2016 Olympics.

Few expect the 38-year-old Federer to fit a Davis Cup comeback into his selective schedule. He would likely get a wild-card exemption for next year's Tokyo Olympics, if he decides to play.

McEnroe noted there was no Olympic tennis for most of his career, during which he committed to the Davis Cup more than most of his American peers.

"The Davis Cup was an important part of my life and career, a chance to represent my country," he said, adding that the competition founded in 1900 was only recently "on life support."

Then came a flurry of team formats.

"This radical change finally took place after way too long," McEnroe said.

"Now they have this, what's it called, ATP Cup? So we have three of them when it almost seemed like there was none."

Players need an invitation to compete in the Laver Cup, where they get to be around 1960s great Rod Laver and play with or against Federer.

"They've gotten their heart and soul involvement here," McEnroe said, adding the competition "should be something to survive."

The ITF governing body has a 25-year Davis Cup deal with the Kosmos agency, whose investors include Gerard Pique, the celebrated Spain and Barcelona soccer player.

Federer said tennis players enjoy being part of a team, and he is curious how the relaunched Davis Cup and the ATP Cup debut will be received.

"Is the calendar still going to be like that in 10 years? We don't know," Federer said. "We'll have more information in six months."

Associated Press